kage no naruto returns
by Darkness that haunts us
Summary: What would have become of the idiot blonde if he had intelligence, ambition, and power over shadows and darkness, and all the madness that comes with them?
1. Chapter 1

Kage no naruto returns  
Disclaimer i dont own naruto if i did he would know more than 4 moves  
XXXXXXXXX

Konohagakure, October 10th  
Chapter 1  
XXXXXXXXX

October 10th. A day that many in Konohagakure, the Village hidden in the Leaves held in utmost hatred. Why, you may ask? Simple, because that was the day that the almighty Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked the village without any warning whatsoever. Konoha's population generally believed they were above everyone else in general in their arrogance. After all, their village was the most powerful of the five great villages. If anything happened to threaten them then their extremely powerful ninja would protect them. They considered themselves invincible and when the Kyuubi came rushing over yonder hill, they believed that it was nothing major, that the ninja could take care of it with little difficulty. As a result, they were rather sluggish in the way of retreating to the shelters. This probably has something to do with the unprecedented massive amount of civilian casualties, but Konoha researchers have yet to give up any tangible findings. I wonder why?

Regardless, that was considered the worst day in their village's history since Orochimaru fled the village. Because not only were the civilian casualties raised through the damn roof, but the shinobi body count was right up there with it. Many a Chuunin or rookie Jounin had rushed the monster head on only to get flattened, eaten, burned to a crisp, or any combination of the three. Genin who had disobeyed orders to 'Get the fuck out of there' had also gotten the same treatment. Most looked on the bright side of that particular score though, less weaklings for Ibiki to sift though come Chuunin Exams. The battle finally ended when the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, in a combination his infinite misplaced trust and simply great power, sealed the Kyuubi into his own son, Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto, note that only two people in the world knew that that was his name aside from the Yondaime himself. He had summoned the great Shinigami to do the job and as a result he ripped the man's soul out of his chest and ate it. He seemed rather pissed off at the moment. Maybe his mumblings about 'interrupt my golf game with Kami, eh mortal? Well you got what you had coming didn't you?' had something to do with his pissed off status. Not that anyone heard him say it since he was on another plane of existence but regardless, moving on….

Now then, the current score was that a few hundred people were dead, civilians and shinobi alike and the beast was sealed into an infant. Now then, this would have been fine and dandy if it wasn't for one major factor. The fact that the recently reinstated Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Sasuke, couldn't keep his mouth shut and actually trusted a bunch a frightened and angry people to make a halfway reasonable decision. The boy could have lived a normal life, free of hatred, but the moment he told the people of the village that the Kyuubi was sealed into the boy, all Hell broke loose. The people basically rushed the balcony the old man was on yelling 'Kill the demon!' and the like, throwing empty liquor bottles at the child in question and other such violence. The Sandaime retreated to his office with the boy after ordering the ANBU to get the villagers back to their homes. The same day, a law was passed which forbade anyone from mentioning the Kyuubi or its landlord to anyone in the younger generation, especially the boy himself. After all, it wouldn't do well if the boy actually knew why he was hated, would it? No, much better to let him wonder why. He couldn't know who his parents were either, no one could. Iwa or Kumo would figure out and attempt to assassinate or kidnap him. He couldn't tell the boy either, he was to be put into an orphanage. After all, you can't trust kids these days, if you told him his father was the Yondaime he would probably go into Iwa and shout 'My dad was Konoha's Yellow Flash!' in front of everybody, wouldn't he?

Regardless of the reasons and poor judgment, the boy was put into an orphanage. It was a rather poor affair, but about half the council wanted to kill the boy and about another third of the remainder wanted him used as a weapon. Luckily he was the Hokage and could override the council to a degree. All he could do is hope the boy turned out well and became an excellent shinobi and a patriot for his village. (1)

Mind you that feeling of trust didn't last long. What may have broken that trust you may ask? It was probably when the two ANBU he had stationed to protect the boy went into his room and attempted to stab a kunai into the infant's jugular. Normally this would have killed him and Konoha would live in peace. However, the word 'attempted' was used for a reason. This reason was that the kunai was stopped mid-thrust. Not by a hand, not by any jutsu, but by a wall of solid darkness. A wall of shadow that had risen from the ground and stopped the knife cold. The shadows of the room all writhed suddenly and descended upon the two ninja. There was nothing in or around the room the next morning to prove that the two ninja were ever there. The only evidence, if you looked really closely, was in the top right corner of the ceiling and the ground near the bed.

In the top right corner of the ceiling there was a very small bloodstain. On the ground near the bed of the sleeping child was a very small piece of triangular metal. This metal was coated in blood and if you looked into it enough, you would realize that it was the point of a kunai knife.


	2. IT WORKS!

Kage no naruto returns  
Disclaimer i do not own naruto or kagenonaruto because if i did sasuke would have been long dead and naruto wouldnt be a fanboy idiot  
XXXXXXXXXXXXX  
Chapter 2  
XXXXXXXXXXXXX  
XXXXXXXXX

The day after the two shinobi vanished from the orphanage was pretty hectic for all involved. They had two shinobi missing, presumed dead, and the only evidence that they were even in the orphanage that night was a bloodstain, the broken off tip of a bloody kunai, and about a dozen eye witness accounts. Naturally suspicion was placed upon the 'demon child' for their murder but the Sandaime wouldn't hear a word against the boy. Eventually the case was closed with the most popular theory being that unknown assassins were going to attack the boy but were defeated and killed. They had managed to gravely injure the assassins and the assassins fled, taking the murdered ANBU with them, but forgetting to take the boy. Once again humanity proves that if they don't want something to exist they have numerous means to rationalize it to conform to what they already know. And people still wonder how Orochimaru got out of the village without anyone seeing him.

The years went on and after the first dozen people went mysteriously missing; everyone eventually learned that they shouldn't attempt to murder the child in his sleep. That didn't stop them from attempting to poison the boy's food, writing insults and cruel words upon his walls and door, preparing traps to kill him and other such nasty things. After the first few attempts on the boy failed, traps not killing him, poisons not working, assassins vanishing never to be seen again, one drunk old fool finally did it. He attacked the boy in public. Broken bottle in one hand and a knife in the other he charged the boy in the street one day when he was ordered to go get medicine for the 'sick' orphanage manager on October 10th. He had specific instructions to go to a specific pharmacy which was right on one of the more populated streets during the Kyuubi festival. The old man yelled out "DIE DEMON!" as he ran toward the boy, attempting to cut the child with a knife, but the strangest thing happened. The knife was blocked by a sudden black wall. The crowd followed the wall and found that it stemmed from the shadow of a nearby building. Before the crowd's eyes a tendril sprouted from that wall, wrapped around the man's neck and threw him into a side alley where he lost consciousness. The boy didn't react at all, he just turned around and continued on to the probably fake pharmacy, he wasn't surprised at all, he had seen that happen before, that and much worse. The crowd however went absolutely ballistic. What was once a silently glaring crowd with the occasional dark muttering became a stampede yelling 'The demon is attacking', 'run for your lives' and 'the demon is loose' and other such kind things.

The boy eventually reached the address he was given by the manager. He looked at the paper in his hand, glad that the Sandaime had taught him to read and write and then looked at the address of the building again. They were the same. Then he looked at the building in question. It was an abandoned building that needed repairs twenty years ago. By this time there was ivy growing on the walls up to the ceiling and there wasn't an inch of un-rotten wood to be seen. He sighed and went to return to the orphanage. The Sandaime found him on the way there. He cried out "Naruto there you are! Come here, would you?" The boy approached the old man and he checked the boy over. "We need to talk Naruto, about what happened earlier. Come on." He put his hand on the boy's shoulder and shunshined to his office. Naruto sat down in the guest chair while old Sarutobi sat down in the larger, more comfortable Hokage's chair and he looked at the boy.

"I have heard stories Naruto but I want the truth directly from you. What did you do to that man in the street, who taught you to use such abilities, why did you attack the man in question? I need you to answer these truthfully Naruto, if I went by the stories you would be considered a monster by anyone's standards. So I need to know the truth, your perspective."

The boy nodded and began his story "No one really taught me anything old man. The only one to ever teach me anything was you when you taught me how to read, write, and do simple math and that sort of stuff that everyone else got taught but wouldn't teach me. I don't know why but that thing earlier, that just happens. It doesn't have anything to do with me, it just happens automatically without my doing anything. The man in the street was trying to kill me and the shadows reacted. I don't know what else to say."

The boy looked sad and confused as he went on this tale and Sandaime just said "I have one last question Naruto, when did this all start, when did the shadows start protecting you?" Naruto just said "For as long as I can remember." Sarutobi knew then that this all must have been Kyuubi's doing.

Sarutobi looked at the boy and said "Right, well Naruto I don't want you using your abilities anymore than you have to, okay? People might get jealous of you, you know and who knows what could happen." While he said this he was thinking 'I will have to have Jiraiya look at the seal, these abilities might let the Kyuubi take over.'

Naruto nodded and asked "Ojii-san?"

The ancient in question looked at the boy and said "Yes Naruto?"

The boy looked down at his feet and mumbled something. The Sandaime leaned closer and asked "What was that?"

Naruto looked up and asked "Ojii-san, can I live on my own? I really don't like it at the orphanage. Everyone treats me badly, no one pays any attention to me, the food is awful and I would really like it somewhere else."

The old man thought about it and where he should put the boy. 'Well, there is that one building.' He looked at the boy and said "Okay Naruto, I think that that is fair enough given what I have put you through today." The boy nodded and the Sandaime said "Okay let's go get your things."

The boy looked at him and said "What things? The only stuff I own is what I am wearing right now."

The old man looked at the child in surprise and decided that he would be paying the orphanage a little visit later. HE took the boy's hand and said "Okay Naruto, now come on, we have to go to your new apartment." The boy went on, holding the man's hand, a smile on his face.

A few hours, a heated negotiation, and some bought furniture later and Naruto was now the proud tenant of apartment number 392. Complete with second-hand furniture, mold behind the walls, and roaches and rats if you knew where to look. The Sandaime left the boy alone in his new 'home'.

The moment the door was closed the smile vanished and the boy's eyes gained the shadows of malice and cruelty, the false joy evaporating. 'Idiot old man.' The boy thought. Honestly believing that he wouldn't figure out everything given the right clues.

Naruto, sweet innocent and abused Naruto, wasn't as sweet and innocent as the old ruler believed. He had been avoiding trouble his whole life. His skills in stealth and secrecy weren't to be underestimated. He knew a lot more than he let on. Since the day he learned to read he had been sneaking into the library, learning everything he could about every last subject. He had stumbled upon a great many things that no one knew was there. Some of them were high class jutsu and others were secret reports that were probably put in the wrong place by tired bureaucrats. He already knew more than enough to figure out that he was the Kyuubi's vessel; the scroll on Jinchuuriki that he had found had been a big tip. He had also managed to find out who his parents were. He had already decided three things. One, he hated his father who had placed the village of ingrates before his own son. Two, he hated Konoha which had made his life a living hell, had disobeyed its greatest leaders last wish and acted as if they were living gods. And Three, he hated the Sandaime. That old bastard had the gall to lie to his face about who his parents were, who his tenant was and other such important information. There were several things that he could not fucking stand and being lied to was high up there. He was hoping the old man suffered before he died and he hoped even more that he was able to watch.

He had learned a lot from the library. Basic Taijutsu, and Genjutsu as well as Ninjutsu were found there quite easily. He also found a few scrolls on chakra control which were important and even a few misplaced high level Ninjutsu scrolls. The one that he found most useful was the 'Kage Bunshin'. Once he learned that his rate of learning skyrocketed. He was able to spend more time on the training grounds and less time in the library after that. He had spent every possible moment out on the fields, undergoing monstrous training regiments to strengthen his pathetic form. He planned to be powerful; he could not abide by weakness in any form. His training really jumped ahead when he first met the Kyuubi.

He did not show any fear before that massive demonic fox. He showed a bit of surprise when he found out that HE was actually a SHE. She appeared as a tall woman with flowing red hair. Long, slender legs and crimson eyes with slit pupils. She appeared in a black kimono with no unnecessary adornment and had nine flowing red tails. She had a decent sized C cup and had fangs that protruded slightly past her lips when she smiled. Also she had a pair of cute fox ears of top of her head instead of normal human ears. She was overall very beautiful. Boy was he surprised when she turned out to be as sadistic as he was. She had improved his already monstrously difficult and strenuous training regiment and improved his senses as well. One major thing he enjoyed was the improved sense of smell. This was because now he could literally smell when people were lying to him. She also improved his hearing and sight. He could hear anything as far as one thousand meters with perfect clarity if he concentrated and his eyes were amazing. He could pick out the smallest detail in anything he looked at and could see amazing distances. He could even predict where people were going to be before they moved like the Sharingan could. Mind you he had to do all the movement calculations in his head to do so, it wasn't automatic like the Sharingan was, nor could he copy jutsus. He had to work for his power. The best thing about it was that the senses didn't come in all at once. It happened little by little, day by day so as not to overload him with information.

The thing he loved most was that he was no longer entirely human. Kyuubi's presence in him was turning him into a Hanyou, a half-demon due to the demonic chakra flowing through him. It wouldn't be complete until he was about eleven though, until then he was human. It was good to have something of a friend though since she would be with him until he died. They were stuck together for the rest of time whether they liked it or not. He would gain her powers but she would always be there even after her powers were fully assimilated, a consciousness within his own. One major benefit of half and eventually full demon-hood was that he would not die by mortal means. Age, disease and the like would never affect him nor would poison thanks to the demonic chakra in his system burning it away.

He had been showed Kyuubi's memories too. She had been around for a lot longer than anyone had guesses and he was not the only person to ever manipulate shadows or darkness. There were many others and he learned from them. One major thing he learned was that three of the associates of one of his shadowy predecessors were still alive. The predecessor in question was called Gecko Moria and he was extremely powerful. He learned a lot from watching Kyuubi's memories of him. Powerful magics involving shadows, the importance of underlings and much more including his methods on creating an army of the undead which were actually pretty good. He looked up to him more than any of his other predecessors. He was ecstatic when he heard that his three main lieutenants were actually still alive after all these centuries.

Two of them, Absalom and a doctor called Hogback had remained alive by having Hogback replace their aging body parts every few years and were still out there somewhere and he made it a point to track them down at some point. Same goes for the third lieutenant, a woman called Perona the Ghost Princess. She had remained alive by forever shedding her physical body and forever remaining as a ghost. The powers of Absalom and Perona would be useful and Hogback was a doctor to rival Tsunade even though his methods were different. He was determined to find them one day. He had also figured out why Kyuubi attacked Konoha. She was a guardian spirit for a certain place. Not Konoha, but for Iwa. She was royally pissed off at Minato for killing her people and she went after him determined to send him to Hell. She succeeded in her goal but she never saw this seal coming. Still she reasoned that it could have been worse. She could have been stuck with an idiot who wore an orange jumpsuit and yelled 'Believe it!' or 'Dattebayo!' after every other sentence.

Instead she got a sadistic and manipulative boy with a hunger for power and knowledge that could burn someone with their intensity. Each day he placed Genjutus she taught him over his apartment and trained to the breaking point, smiling all the while as he felt his muscles contort and harden with each practice strike, as his aim gradually improved until he could take the wings off of a gnat with a kunai from one hundred feet away without hurting the rest of the insect. All of this had one major flaw though. He was lazy.

Not when it came to combat or training, but when it came to doing much, he preferred to get others to do it for him. He could hold his own but why bother if your subordinates could do it for you? The question was where he would obtain subordinates. He was going to destroy Konoha, he needed an army. However he couldn't leave Konoha and by the nature of his goals and the locations he was limited to, he couldn't just open a recruiting office. So he planned to take a new path to domination.

The first thing was space. He knew that all of the other tenants left soon after he moved in so all he did was Henge into some random schmuck and went to see the landlord with a plan to buy the building the 'demon' was living in. After assuring the short and fat man that he indeed did know what he was buying he managed to get the building at a fraction of what any other complex would cost. When he got home he simply got out some stolen paperwork, signed some forms and turned them in at the appropriate places and the deed was in his name. He was now the devious owner of a shitty apartment building. He decided that he could spruce the place up later.

He also bought a new wardrobe with the stipend the old fool gave him. He hated the buzzard with a passion but Naruto was a born actor. He knew that people who pitied you were the easiest people in the world to manipulate, second only to people who admired you, and he managed to slowly get the stipend increased and that increased his savings since he no longer needed to pay rent since he owned the building. What he decided on was a pair of black pants taped off at the ankle and a pair of shinobi sandals. He decided upon a black long-sleeve spandex number to cover his chest. It clung to his body revealing the well-developed muscles for someone his age and some seals made it extremely resistant to damage no to mention comfortable, over that went a black trench-coat with an abnormally large amount of pockets for holding equipment. He dept the collar on the trench-coat up and only the top two buttons buttoned, keeping his arms free and finally he bought a wide-brimmed black top hat to cover his blonde hair. He didn't want to be noticeable in the dark and the hair was a dead giveaway. He also bought a large amount of ninja equipment and stole what he couldn't buy. He was quite the exceptional thief when the time called for it.

Now that he didn't look like a scrawny brat that could easily be picked on. When he finally managed to get the basement stocked with the necessary materials, these included a large freezer, a metal slab complete with restraints and a large number of medical tools he bought a shovel and went grave-digging. He came home the same night with two dozen coffins in scrolls. He spent the rest of the day waiting while he prepared one of the bodies, making it stronger, more powerful and more prepared for combat.

Finally the day came and some idiot ANBU decided to try and kill him in his sleep. The building was dark and so Naruto had an immense advantage. The idiot probably didn't know about his abilities since he had been having a low profile lately and he walked into the darkness, but he never walked out.

Naruto stood before the man who kneeled in front of him, arms and legs bound by solid darkness. He had wanted to try this out for a while, but he never got the chance till now. He leaned in and said to the man "Though you are a bigot and a fool, I must thank you for being my guinea pig." The man looked up at him with hate in his eyes only to be backhanded across the face. "Now sit still." He commanded as a spotlight shone on him. A Kage Bunshin went up to the man and squatted down. The clone of the boy did what the man had never expected and pulled his shadow up off the floor!

Naruto approached in the darkness and pulled out the implement he had found in one of the coffins. Probably a Chuunin given the status of the grave, pretty old too. The implement was a gigantic battle axe as big as he was. With his strength though, he was able to lift it and he brought it down on the shadow near the man's feet. The axe cut through the shadow and the man feel unconscious. He took the shadow from the clone and went into his laboratory. He looked at his creation. It was twice as tall as a normal man and was much more muscular. It had claws instead of fingernails and there was stitching over much of its body. He took the shrunken shadow of the disillusioned ANBU and slammed it into the dead bodies' chest. The shadow vanished into the creature's skin and Naruto waited with baited breath, as did the Kyuubi. Within a minute, the beast's eyes fluttered and Naruto let out a laugh. "I DID IT!" He cried "IT WORKS, IT'S ALIVE, MY FIRST ZOMBIE IS ALIVE!" He was the most happy he had ever been, this opened all sorts of doors and he was looking forward to the fruits that the plans he could hatch with those opened doors could bring.


	3. training for whats to come

Kage no naruto returns

The gods all sang in perfect harmony in a wait of this event and now that its come a celebration forvever in honor Kage no naruto returns

XXXXXXXXXXX

Chapter 3

XXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto was very happy and the reason was simple it worked. His idea worked and his hard work payed off. At first the anbu tried to attack him but because he was strapped down he couldnt attack. Any hatred or anger towards him quickly died out and now it would listen to whatever he told it to do. The zombie now known as known as SZ01 as shown by the tatto on the side of its face. Which was right above its right eye. The reason for the tatto was because he saw no reason to name one of the weaker zombie. He was only going to name the important zombie. He then let the SZ01 out of its confinements and went through four seals and bathed it in fire. The result was he didnt flinch or ignite. Naruto couldnt help but smirk evilly after seeing his seal working so well.

Gecko Moria's zombies had three major weaknesses. The first was fire, but that was taken care of by a small yet powerful seal that made his zombies fire-proof which was now proved to work. The second was salt. This was a bit more vexing for if a zombie ate salt, he was purified and the shadow he had inside the zombie would be freed. Naruto could not find any way to get around that weakness. Hes though of many things to try to stop it like the rain masks but he had no idea how to make one and the village hidden in the rain didnt sell them outside their country. The third and arguably greatest weakness was that if the shadow's donor died than the shadow would vanish and the zombie would die too. This was dealt with by a small seal that kept the shadow in but it had yet to be tested until now. Naruto had walked back where he left the unconscious ANBU. Removing someone's shadow had two effects on the person. The first was that they were automatically knocked out for at least two days; the second was that sunlight became anathema to them; it would dissolve their bodies like sugar in water

Naruto unsealed the axe and raised it over the unconscious anbus head. He then slammed the axe down chopping the anbus head off as a huge amount of blood spurted against the wall. Worse comes to worse if this doesnt work then i still just have a body waiting to be animated.

He walked into the lab and saw the SZ01 walking around as if nothing happened. Naruto grinned evilly, the seal worked soon all his plans would happen. He then brought in his new corpse and then began strengthened it and gave it a shadow the body wouldn't dissolve, even though the shadow once belonged to someone else. The ANBU would hopefully make a good zombie in the future.

Over the next few weeks numerous cases of grave robbing were reported in Konoha. Most of the deaths were only a few years old. A good thirty five percent of the stolen bodies were the more intact victims of the Kyuubi attack. Naruto couldn't help but see the irony of it as he examined one of the bodies in the freezer. The warriors that fell to the great demon would be reborn simply to serve the creature they were killed by. Kyuubi found it amusing as well.

Naruto decided to keep a low profile for now. One of his major projects was to fix this dump of a apartment complex since he was the only one living here he could do whatever he wanted. He decided to make the place have a very strong defense against people wishing to end the life of the "demon". The first thing he had done was establish an iron fence around the property. The only break in this fence was a large iron gate. This gate had a very thick border and for a good reason. Naruto had rigged an invisible and high powered barrier around the place. Anyone and anything that touched the thing would be incinerated. The gate's borders were specifically reinforced to withstand the power of the barrier, making it the sole entrance to the place. Well, the only safe entrance. The barrier also went underground to prevent people from getting in via Doton jutsus. He didn't have a lock on the gate though, he wanted people to get in, he just wanted them to go in through the front door. Mind you he could open holes in the barrier for whatever reason, such as an escape route.

No one saw naruto very much for the next few months. The reason to this was because he was training and improving his power over shadows. He was also improving his own physical abilities as well. yuubi asked him one day why he trained his body so hard if he was going to use the powers she gave him, one made the other obsolete. "Not so Kyuubi-chan." He answered her. "True the shadows do protect me a great deal and despite all the attempts on my life, no one has broken though them yet. But you can never be sure. I guarantee that one day I will face someone who is able to bypass that protection and it is then that my Taijutsu skills will show their worth." Kyuubi was skeptical but she decided to trust his judgment, he hadn't been wrong yet after all.

Even though he was skilled in genjustu(my favorite ninja art), and taijustu. He was rather weak in the ninjustu department only having 10 pr so that he found useful. He much preferred using shadows and genjustu and most ninjustu can be avoided by a simple Kawarimi. But if it came down to it he had some big flashy ninjustu incase he needed to get past a wall or something. He was one to never leave himself without options.

He spent many of his days training as much as he could and preparing bodies for shadows. He got most of these bodies from the villagers for once he was actually applauding their stupidity they were just making the demon boy stronger. The more people came the more shadows and bodies he acquired. Not that he was complaining by the way just another advantage he got because of their hatred.

The more he trained with shadows the more he came to understand. He even learned that with the use of his powers he could make pocket dimensions with powers. They took a good deal of chakra and control to create but the result was a small spherical ball of darkness with an extremely large storage capacity. He had prepared a good deal of these 'storage shadows' and fused them into the pockets of his trench-coat. He also packed a large amount of the shadows with a large amount of kunai and kunai with explosive tags attached to them. He could release a set amount of them at any time, the result being that they would fly out of the shadow at high speeds. He really enjoyed lifting up one side of the coat and releasing a bunch of kunai at his opponents. They never saw it coming since from their perspective the weapons came flying out of nowhere and because of that surprise factor it had a very good accuracy rate. He could also reach into the shadow and pull out kunai in as many numbers as he wanted. Some of the shadows held stored rations, ninja wire, normal explosive tags, paper and ink for seals or messages, blood replenishing and soldier pills, and miscellaneous items such as books and scrolls for when he got bored. He didn't carry any pouches or bags as a result. He also had one of the storage shadows compressed and hidden in the right sleeve of his long sleeve shirt. This one only carried one item: his battle axe. With it stored there, he could just stretch his arm in a sudden motion and will it to appear and it would appear in his hand. Best part of it all was that he didn't need to bite his fingers to release any seals like most ninja did.

He also discovered that all these worlds of darkness were connected. The fact that were other worlds and that were all connected to darkness was amazing. He also learned that darkness was a single entity. Darkness was even the thing that connected these worlds if he wanted he could travel to these worlds. He decided to leave other worlds alone though. For one thing, he would be sent to one world at random and who knows what could happen. He could end up in a world where the people breathed something other than oxygen for example, or he could show up in a world that was completely uninhabitable. Even if he found a world that was suited for human life, he would have no sure way of getting back, he would just be tossed into the ether again and God only knows where he would end up. So as good as a killing spree in another world to vent frustration sounded, he decided to give the whole thing a miss. Besides, if worst came to worst and he ended up captured or defeated, than he could use that as an ever-present escape route. It was wise to always be prepare.

As the months went by naruto became stronger and stronger and fewer people tried to attack him he actually missed this he needed the bodies. He couldnt go out and start taking shadows either unless he wanted the whole leaf village on him. His army of zombies increased by large amount he had 50 zombies in his service. 30 of these zombies were the soilder zombies the only one with a name out of these was the first one he created SZ01 he decided to name it the joker. The reason he decided to name it even was because it was his most powerful one so far and it was his first one he created. The reason he gave it the name joker was because the guy had bright green eyes, and was smiling for some even changed the way it looked he gave it him a purple suit, he already had long blond hair but he put green in it, also he had a gaint smile scar from his lips,and he had makeup all over his face to look like a clown.( imagine the joker from batman). Also besides his soilder zombies he had zombies that were trapped in portraits. They could leave these portraits at will and could also travel between other frames that were made the same way. They could be used as a warning system and a defense since no one ever expects enemies to come out of a damn painting do they?

Since he always carried a picture frame with him, he could always be aware of important events since they would warn him immediately. This frame was small, about the size of a pocket watch, but he wasn't really worried about the visual on it since he could hear the zombie in it just fine. There were only two zombies not directly made for combat. The first was zombie number twenty one. This one he made for recon outside of his home. It ended up as a mixture between a man and a bat. Since 'zombie number twenty one' was rather long for someone he actually had conversations with, he just named the guy Hildon.

The other zombie was not made for either combat nor recon or any other purpose in battle. Rather this one was made for around the house work. She was the only female zombie and as a result he tried to at least make her look good. She was of medium height and slender build. She had red eyes and bright blue hair. She was rather quiet, but very loyal and obedient. She basically took the position of maid since the other zombies couldn't cook or clean to save their lives while this zombie had a good talent for it. He decided to name her Rei. She also knew some hand to hand combat in case the house was ever intruded upon and she found them before he did.

He had to work on his new problem of people fearing him. It was good and everything but it didnt help him get the bodies and shadows he needed so badly. He could adduct people but that would raise awareness. There was already an investigation as to what happened to the fifty or so people that had already vanished, not that they would ever find anything. He made his decision on what to do and approached the Sandaime with it. Despite the fact that he hated the buzzard he still needed his permission and knew just how to play the man like a harp.

The main problem was getting him to agree to let him leave the village. The Sandaime had already given him several basic manuals and guides for the ninja business so he used the need for an escape from the hatred as the main excuse. He posed it as a training trip and to get away from the villagers trying to harm him also helped with the guilting. He would stay at a cave near the village and train there for a year. It would act as survival training in addition to whatever work he got in on his skills. At least, that was what he told the man. Coaxing people to do what you want was a subtle art. He didn't approach his request directly for one thing. He slowly built up to it over the conversation. The subtle yet fake flattery in his words and tone, the innocent and abused mentality he portrayed, all of it was to convince the bastard to let him do what he wanted and a little hit of guilting never hurt anyone. Before long, the man agreed and while he thanked the man politely he was making fun of the bastard in his thoughts. The old man only had one last issue to raise. "You know Naruto-kun, if you leave the village for a year, you will have to enter the Academy a year late." Naruto looked at the aged leader and gave an enormous fake smile "I know Ojii-san, but the training I get done will make up for it!" "Well, if you're sure then…." "I am Jii-san, see you later!" The boy shuddered in his mind, he hated acting like that, but he had to maintain his façade until he became a Gennin at least, then he could let a bit more bloodlust show.

A year away from Konoha was just what he needed. Sure he would be watched, but whatever the man tried could be bypassed without too much trouble. He would leave a variation of the Kage Bunshin behind to fool the crystal ball and the ANBU that would probably check up on him at least once a week. He packed a map of the elemental countries and in his bag and sealed a large freezer into a scroll as he prepared to leave the village. He wasn't planning on staying anywhere near Konoha. He had shadows to collect, bodies to prepare, secrets to sell, and most importantly, people to find. He needed people better suited to do certain jobs than he was, and he had several things to find for his plans to be a success. One thing at a time, one thing at a time. He had patience after all; he could wait a few years for his plans to work.


	4. lend a helping hand

Testing one two, one two, trolls in a tantrum cause terrible trouble, is this thing working

Testing one two, one two, trolls in a tantrum cause terrible trouble, is this thing working? Good. Now that that has been established, I must give you all an important announcement. Chapter four of Kage no Naruto has been released to the public! The entire thing is listed below, enjoy and review at the end.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or anything else save my ideas. Those are mine, MINE I TELL YOU!

XXXXXXXXX

Summary of last chapter

XXXXXXXXX

Naruto tested and increased his abilities, and also increased the size of the undead army. Since people stopped coming to 'visit' him, he managed to convince the Sandaime to let him take a one year long training trip in the forest outside of Konoha. We left off with him packing for the trip.

XXXXXXXXX

Konohagakure, 'The Demon House' (As the locals call it at least)

Chapter 4

XXXXXXXXX

Naruto was packing and planning for his training trip. At least thats what everyone else thought. The real truth wasnt pleasant for anyone in konoha.

He had pretty much everything he needed for a extended trip. He packed food, weaponry, a few hundred scrolls and books on the ninja arts that were from the areas that people were allowed into normally. They were all disguised as low level techniques by genjustu. He also had a bit more which concluded zombie picture frames, check, map of the elemental countries, check, large freezer sealed within a scroll to reserve bodies he found or happened to collect, check, extremely powerful, check, hatred for most people in the world, check. Okey he was all ready to leave.

He told rin the housekeeper zombie to keep the house nice and tidy. He made several seals on the iron clad gate that made the place a near impenetrable sphere of energy. He left no food or drinks so no supplies left and he didnt want anyone going in his house while he wasnt there.

Leaving konoha wasnt a very big event. He agreed with the 3rd hokage that it should be done in secrecy. The old man cast a genjustu on him to make him look like a normal person so he could leave much easier. In all honesty the old man didnt need to but the 3rd hokage believed him to be at most low gennin skills, which naruto loved really. The most dangerous enemy is the one you overlook.

Within two hours of leaving he reached the cave that he was told he would staying at for the next year. There was a pretty big sized hole in the rock, larger then he expected. He then set down most of the scrolls and books. After placing them down he released the genjustu, and replaced it with one of his own that covered the whole cave area. This genjustu was to trick the 3rds crystal ball into thinking everything was okey. He needed something a little more elaborate for the living eyes and ears that would soon he watching him. He been wanting to try this out for a good long while.

He faced his shadow, against a deep grey stone and raised it hand at it, fingers spread. He only muttered to words"come forth." A black hand suddenly flew up from the shadow. The hand pushed at the ground and before long a person raised from his shadow, which vanished when the creature fully emerged. His former shadow looked just like him, the only difference was that his body was pitch black and his eyes and mouth shone bright white in the pitch darkness. This was naruto shadow a being much mentally weaker than naruto but extremely stronger, immortal, and amorphous. All he had to was give it orders and it would obey it as well as it could.

His orders were very simple to the shadow" take my form and train here for the entire year. Read the books, the scrolls I left for you and the most important thing dont do anything suspicious. Do you understand?" His shadow then nodded and naruto began to grin. The shadow would act like a Kage bushin, he would learn what it did, as he went to sleep each night. There was one last thing to take care of first….

He walked to the mouth of the cave and looked out at the sun in the distance. He then stuck one pinkie finger out in the sun and smirked as it didn't dissolve away. He just now learned that he could separate from his shadow and not be hurt by the sun. He had separated from his shadow before and practiced all sorts of moves with it. When both of them working tougher they were a powerful team, but he never dared to do it in the sun and he just learned that his fears were unfounded.

He watched as the shadow's color changed until he was looking at an exact copy of himself. He nodded to the shadow and left the cave heading into the forest. He knew his way around Konoha's forests rather well from his sneaking about at night, so he knew right where to go to begin his search… away from Konoha and to the north, in the direction of Iwagakure.

He walked into a tree's shadow and closed his eyes. He mumbled under his breath 'Kage Hokou' (Shadow Walk) and vanished into the darkness, sinking into the shadow beneath him.

When he emerged from that darkness, he was near the border to Tsuchi no Kuni. He really loved the Kage Hokou, he could transport from one shadow to another anywhere in the world in a moment as long as he had been there before by more normal means. He had never been out of Hi no Kuni so he had to do with the border instead. He crossed the border and made his way into Tsuchi no Kuni, Kyuubi's ancestral home, the enemies of Konoha and if his information was right, the location of the den of the esteemed Dr. Hogback.

XXXXXXXXX

One week later

XXXXXXXXX

Naruto was staying at a small but equally comfortable hotel 50 miles from the border. His search for Doctor Hogback hasn't been going as well thought hes found no trace of him. But that was expected because Iwa was huge. The only places he could be sure Hogback wasn't was within twenty miles of the borders and within fifty miles of Iwagakure no Sato. Those places were heavily guarded by Iwa Nin. Aside from those locations, Hogback could be almost anywhere in the country though he probably wasn't in any town or city. After a night of thinking he came to the conclusion that Hogback's most likely position was in the mountains somewhere probably near a place where they had a large graveyard so that he could continue his exploration of the human body's mysteries.

Naruto unrolled a newly stolen map of Tsuchi no Kuni that showed every last town and known settlement and was rather dismayed at what he found. Apparently there were at least a dozen villages that fit the bill in each mountain chain and if he was right Hogback and Absalom could be in a hidden place anywhere within five miles of any of them which was probably heavily defended. He knew finding any of Moria's old compatriots would be difficult but come on!

Naruto decided he either had to search the 50 villages he could be at and the land around them or just find a way to search a large amount of land at once. He grinded his teeth in frustration, that it was this hard to find hogback and Absalom, who were thankfully traveling together since Absalom needed the doctor to replace his aging body parts with new ones every so often, then it would be almost impossible to locate Perona, who didn't even have a physical form. 'Wait a second.' He thought. 'Absalom needs Hogback to replace his aging body parts every few years. Of course! Absalom's body is composed of mostly animal parts, mostly predators. If any of the villages listed have a large population of dangerous predators, especially ones that may have shrunk noticeably than that would probably be the place!'

He eagerly looked at the map again, taking out a book of Iwa's natural wildlife. There were unique animals and plants in every country so he had bought such books in case he found one. He checked each place in the book's index, looking for the most dangerous and powerful animals near each of them, especially ones that have experienced a declination of population over the last few years. He found some good news and some bad news when the search was complete. He had managed to narrow down the likely possibilities from over fifty to below ten, seven to be exact, but those seven were equally likely to be the place and they were all very far apart. He had no real choice but to check each village individually. As most people from the Nara clan would say 'Mendokuse.'

XXXXXXXXX

Three days later, 40 miles from last town

XXXXXXXXX

Naruto was in his hotel grinning like a crazy person. The reason why was quite simple. IWA had a Jinchuuriki of its own! His name was Han his abilities were quite impressive they were both suited for combat and tracking. His abilities in the way of recon could be used to recon an extremely wide area, such as an entire country of he wanted to. If he could get her on his side than he could find Hogback and Absalom within a few hours! He was also supposed to be monstrously talented at Genjutsu.

There was one big problem with that he knew of right now. The big problem was that though Iwa was extremely abusive of him, it was still protective as all Hell when it came to anything to do with him. It would be difficult to get him to come to his side, extremely difficult and just as difficult to steal him away. If he succeeded he would have to vanish from the country and quickly since the entire country would be swarming with ninja looking for her and more importantly, him. He would have to observe the girl for a while and find a good way to either deceive or coerce her into accepting his offer to come with him. If he succeeded he would have to vanish from the country and quickly since the entire country would be swarming with ninja looking for him and more importantly, him. He would have to observe the boy for a while and find a good way to either deceive or coerce her into accepting his offer to come with him

He looked at a picture of the boy that he had taken from the hitman he had beaten almost to death for the information on the Jinchuuriki. He had heard him mention to a friend that he was hired to kill her and took action; he killed the fool once he had finished talking. He looked at the picture of the jinchuuriki. He had short spiky brown hair, with red armor that covered most of his body, he had bright pink eyes, he looked to be quite tall as well ,and he was quite skinny and frail. He looked at the boy's name before destroying the dossier, he muttered to himself, Han Kikukawa Jinchuuriki of the gobi memorizing the name and picture. He grinned he had a new target.

XXXXXXXXX

Two weeks later, outside of Iwagakure

XXXXXXXXX

Naruto was holed up in a decent sized cave about a mile and a half outside of Iwa. He had been spying on the local Jinchuuriki Han for the last two days, trying to learn about him, his fears, his preferences, the way he fought, and everything he could. The more he could appeal to him when they met, the more likely it was that he would leave with him.

So far he learned a lot about han. His genjustu abilities were off the charts. They were better than what most kages can do the only person whose genjustu abilities that come close is Uchiha Itachi and that chick in Konoha that could make Genjutsu real before Yuuhi Kurenai sealed her powers away. His genjustus were not breakable also they were traumatizing as the Tsukuyomi, he knew that if he was caught in one of his illusions, it would be really bad. The only bit about that was that Han was really shy and was scared to hurt the citizens in fear that more would come to kill him. He really couldn't understand that he was the strongest genjustu user in centuries, maybe ever, but in everything else he was barley low jounin.

He found out a good bit about his life as well. He was extremely introverted, didn't like confrontation very much, and was listed as Tokubetsu Jounin in Iwa's books. The reason no one's killed him yet is because of his one and only friend, Suzushiro Haruka. Unlike her friend Yukino she was loud and aggressive, and fiercely protective of her friend. As a result the blonde Jounin was considered 'demonically tainted' by her peers. After she befriended Han, she quickly became his only friend. He also noticed that Haruka wasn't incredibly loyal to Iwa either. He knew that if he wanted han to come with him he needed to convince Haruka to come with him as well. There was also a very helpful thing that only he knew that Han was head over heels in love with Haruka. He could understand that haruka was the only friend hes ever had so it makes sense. But if he got haruka on his side then Han would follow. It was one more person than he intended to carry off, but it was worth it. The only question was how to use Hans love to his best advantage.

He got his chance a week later when haruka was killed during a training session. They spread a rumor around that it was an accident but naruto knew better. It actually was a well thought out plan by a jinchuuriki hater. Han retreated to his apartment in his depressed state and when the mob came to finally destroy the demon but when they showed up han used extremely powerful genjustu to break their minds. Naruto thought of a way to bring both Han and Haruka to his side and shatter their frail loyalties to Iwa in one fell swoop. He grinned as he snuck into the Jinchuuriki's apartment one day after the 'accident'.

The place was a lot dirtier and unkempt than it normally was as he looked around the interior. He could hear a slight crying from a nearby room. He made sure that he stayed quiet as he neared the room, the last thing he wanted was for him to suddenly attack him, he wasn't all that sure he could win against her if she did. He found him crying his eyes out muttering things such as 'Why Haruka, why did you leave me?' and other such things. He entered the room without a sound and used the shadows to cloak himself from sight as he spoke to him. Han had spent the last day and a half in utter depression. His best friend, his only friend, the love of his life even though he knew that she would never return his feelings was gone, killed by accident. He couldn't belive life was so fair why did this all had to happen to him he thought as he sank deeper and deeper into his depression. He was completely shocked when he heard a voice from nowhere whispered into his ear. "Why are you crying?" the voice asked him.

His sadness turned to deep fuelled anger at this. Who was this person to question why he was crying wasn't it obvious his only friend in the whole world was gone! He growled to the voice "Why do you THINK! She's gone, my Haruka-Chan is gone, she left me behind, just like everyone else. How can I go one without her? She was the only reason I had left for living." His voice was loud and harsh at first but settled into a whimper as the sentence ended

The voice returned "What would you do if I said I could bring back haruka to you."He looked around for the voice in supreme rage. How dare this person say they could bring her back she was dead! How dare this person toy with his love for Haruka! He would find whoever it was and tear their mind asunder and he told the voice as such.

The voice returned, filled with mirth. "Why would you destroy your one chance to have Haruka returned to you? I do not joke, resurrection is within my abilities, simply ask me to and I will return Suzushiro Haruka to you, just as she was before she was assassinated."

Han was stunned. Haruka was assassinated? Murdered? He couldn't believe it. He asked the voice, his own voice filled with uncharacteristic rage "Who did it!? Who took Haruka-chan away from me!? Why would they hurt her, when she was so beautiful, so perfect…?"

The voice returned once more "She was killed because of her association with you. She was killed because she was your friend. It was done on the orders of the Tsuchikage. Why do you think someone who Haruka had never talked to before challenged her to a match and used an abnormally long kunai that could easily strike an accidentally fatal blow that he had never been seen using before? It was planned by your village, it was Iwagakure itself that took Haruka from you, no one else is to blame."

Han was once more distraught; he picked up a knife and yelled with fresh tears staining his eyes "Haruka-Chan was killed because of me! It's MY fault she's dead!" He drove the knife toward his chest but a tendril of shadow struck the knife from his hand.

The voice returned "It is not your fault Haruka is dead. It is Iwagakure's fault. Even so it does not matter as I can bring your Haruka back to you, if you want me to." Han looked up to where he thought the voice was coming from, which was about ten feet to the right of where Naruto actually was and said "And what would you want in return, if you were able to do so? Nothing comes for free, I know that much."

Though she didn't know it, Naruto smiled at that. Even depressed to borderline insanity, he was still sharp as a razor.

The voice returned and whispered to her "You are correct, there is a catch, but it is insignificant to what you would gain in return. In exchange for your Haruka's return I only ask for your loyalty. Your obedience to my commands. You will leave Iwa with me, and your Haruka-chan may come as well if you want. I can assure you that if you come with me, you will one day have your revenge on Iwagakure no Sato."

Han considered it for a long while. If he left Iwa than there would be no one to defend him, but then again Iwa had hurt him more than anyone else ever had or ever could. They took what he loved most away how dare they they had no right. He decided to agree to the deal. He didn't know what would happen, but it would definitely be better than staying here. He spoke and Naruto smiled when he heard his reply when she said "You have a deal". Han looked around and said "I have a question though, just who are you?"

A small figure stepped from the shadows and he jumped when eh the saw the figure suddenly appear. He didn't detect anything from there; He didn't hear any heartbeat, or its footsteps. He didn't sense any chakra until the figure moved either. His jaw dropped when the figure was revealed to be a boy no more than seven or eight years old. He said to him "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, now then let's get going. We'll have to get Haruka's body back for this to work." He walked out the door, with the bookish Jinchuuriki behind him, still astounded at both the boy's age and the authority he apparently had.

XXXXXXXX

One hour later, Genjutsu-hidden cave forty miles from Iwa

XXXXXXXXX

They were hiding out in one of Naruto's portable labs, prepping for the resurrection. Haruka's nude form was on a metal table and Naruto had put on a lab coat, mask and gloves, and was cleaning a bunch of scientific/medical instruments.

Han sat in the corner eyes wide at what has happened to him in the two hours hes known naruto.

XXXXXXXXX

Flashback no jutsu

XXXXXXXXX

Naruto and han had gotten to the morgue in one piece. It was about nine at night so no one saw them. He had asked him about the security around the morgue since a Hidden Village's morgue was always well defended. Dead ninja bodies were flesh-colored gold nowadays. The techniques that could be developed and the jutsu and bloodlines stolen could do tremendous damage to a ninja village if their morgue was successfully raided. As a result the only places that were more defended than the morgue was the local Kage's residence, the reservoir in Sunagakure, and any jutsu libraries in the village. Aside from those places, the morgue was the most well defended place.

Han had told him what he knew of the morgue. Since the third ninja war, the number of high quality shinobi was lowered by a lot and Iwa was still dealing with the damage. As a result their were only ten high Chuunin level ninja guarding the place from the inside and the five doctors that held the night shift were all high Chuunin to low Jounin level shinobi. Quite a bit of security for a three story, completely square building. Especially considering the fact that there were alarms linked to every other door and cameras everywhere. One slip-up and half the ninja population of the village would be raining upon them like bats from hell. Naruto though had a simple solution to alarms, cameras, and reinforcements already thought up.

He held his hands in front of him, palms facing eachother about six inches apart. Shadows began to coalesce between his hands, forming a small sphere. He showed the ball to Han and explained. "This sphere" He began "will envelop a large space and immensely speed up time inside of it. An hour in there becomes a minute out here, you see?" He nodded and he continued. "This solves the problem of reinforcements, but the cameras, alarms, and other non-human defenses in there will be gone too since everything electronic will short out upon contact with the sphere, the stuff comes back online when the sphere is gone though. Lightning jutsu can't be used in here either, they just don't work and no one can get in or out without my help. The plan is this: I put this little guy around the building and we storm the place. We get the soon to be not late Haruka's body, and we hightail it out of here. Sound good?" Before he could nod, he pressed the sphere between his palms. A second later he let it go and the darkness spread from his hands, enveloping the morgue and everything within twenty feet of the building, the two of them included.

According to han there were four guards inside the entrance hall so he went in prepared for them. A very small ball of solidified shadow formed on the tips of the first four fingers on his right hand. He asked what those were for and he looked at him, grinned and showed him his fingers one by one, as each sphere became visible to him he said 'One dead ninja, two dead ninja, three dead ninja, four.' Then he turned to the door said beneath his breath 'Ding ding, round one.' Before he kicked the door down and flicked his hand toward the four ninja that rushed them the moment the door opened. The four balls of condensed darkness rushed from his hand and pierced through the chests of the four, each appearing to be nothing but a line that stretched from his hand and went through his opponents before disappearing into the wall. The four ninja fell without a sound and four small craters decorated the wall around the receptionist, who was looking frail and helpless. That was to be expected since she was the only civilian in the building.

He approached the woman and casually leaned against the counter, a smile on his face and asked her 'Where would I look to find the body of the late Suzushiro Haruka?' like he didn't just kill four people like it was nothing. She shakily pointed to a chart which listed in which freezer a body was in, depending on what letter their name started with. There was a separate freezer for the unidentified. The S's were in Freezer 5. He looked at the terrified secretary and said "Thank you" before a shadow came from the ceiling, wrapped around her neck, and hoisted her up. He shrugged at the hanging secretary said 'nothing personal' and walked toward the freezer section.

They encountered two more Chuunin on their way to the freezer in question who made the bad move of attempting to use Raiton jutsu. Given the treaty between Kumo and Iwa during the war, Iwa ninja picked up a few lightning techniques and vice versa. Since Doton jutsu were too wide range to use here they went to the only thing they knew that would work in any other circumstance. Naruto thought the look on their faces was priceless when they looked at their hands in shock when their jutsu didn't work. Their heads were cut off from tendrils of darkness that originated from the natural shadows of the walls before they knew what had happened.

When they got to the freezer, Naruto cut off the lock with a small blade of shadow that extended from his fingers and found a large room with a bunch of square cubicles lining a wall. He looked to han and said "You keep watch." He nodded and stood a small way back from the door as Naruto cut the lock off of one cubicle, opened it, and checked the tag on the toe of the body inside before moving to the next one. On the seventh one he checked the tag, smiled and said "We have a winner." As he rolled out the steel sheet that the body rested on. He called to Han who came quickly and told him to pick up the body and follow him, which he did, albeit with some difficulty. Naruto led them to a shadow in the corner and grabbed his arm. He muttered under his breath "Kage Houko" just as four Chuunin and three Jounin level doctors rushed inside the room. A moment and a whirl of nausea later and they were in a strange cave.

Naruto took a scroll from his coat and told him to put a Genjutsu over the cave mouth. By the time he was done he had unsealed a small building and carried the body inside. And then they were where they were now.

XXXXXXXXX

Flashback no jutsu Kai

XXXXXXXXX

Naruto, after dressing in normal scientific/medical clothing, removed the white blanket covering Haruka from view. The moment he did, Hanhad a massive, near debilitating nosebleed. Modest C cup, not too bad by anyone's standards. Bright blue eyes, currently closed, and a full head of blonde curls. The only thing marring her body was the thin yet extremely deep wound in her side.

Naruto went through a few handseals for an examination jutsu and put his hand over her chest. He quickly copped a feel when Han was cleaning the blood off of her upper lip, and he didn't notice at all. After a second or two he took his hand a way and whistled. "Damn, whoever did this knew what they were doing, he did an awesome job. One stab, clean, right between the ribs and right through the heart. I couldn't have done it better myself. Okay, this is going to be more work than I thought. We are going to need a transplant."

Hanlooked at the diminutive blonde and asked "Transplant? I thought you were going to resurrect her?"

Naruto pulled off his gloves and looked at the boy like she just said the moon was made out of cheese and said "Yes, but I think you don't want her resurrected into a body that has been fatally wounded. I need to fix up the wound that killed her before I do it or she'll just die again. Her heart is beyond repair, everything else is easily mended. As a result I will need to do a transplant. Now if you'll excuse me." He walked outside of the small building and she reluctantly followed him outside, taking one more look at the body of Haruka.

Naruto had taken a scroll from the coat he left inside the portable lab and unsealed a large freezer. It was as big as the laboratory, easily. He opened the door and motioned for her to follow him inside, which she did. She wasn't prepared for what was inside. There was the massive cold of course, it was about ten degrees Fahrenheit inside the freezer but there were at least fifty bodies inside, hanging from meat hooks, men and women, young and old. He looked at her and just asked "What's her blood type?"

Han was shocked for a moment but got a hold of himself and answered "Type AB." He nodded and went through the bodies, eventually choosing a rather busty female that had taken a rather nasty fall, given the angle of her neck. He took out a kunai and without missing a beat cut through the skin of her chest, revealing the breastbone. He charged his chakra into the blade and cut through the bone like butter. He carefully spread the two halves of bone and reached in, taking hold of the necessary organ and with the knife cut each of the connecting veins and arteries that led to the organ. He pulled out a perfectly functional, if a bit cold, human heart and walked out, han following.

He sealed up the freezer and went back inside the lab; he prevented his fellow Jinchuuriki from entering though. He needed a sterile environment. As a result han was stuck sitting outside the door listening to the sound of flesh and bone parting, the clinking of metal instruments and the scent of cold blood for about an hour before the door opened again and his love's mysterious savior stepped out again, medical smock covered in blood. He motioned for her to come in, which he eagerly did.

The room was just as it had been before, only there was more blood and a brand new scar on Haruka's chest. The wound that killed her was also gone. There was a lot of blood on the instruments, especially the scalpel. There was also a pierced heart in a jar. He looked at him and asked "How did she recover so quickly? There should still be stitches, and the wound should be open."

He looked at him and said "Demonic Chakra. One of the best healing agents there is." He looked at him in shock and asked "How do YOU have access to Demonic Chakra? Only a Bijuu could use it."

He looked at him again and said only one thing "A Bijuu, or a Jinchuuriki."

He looked at him openmouthed. He shakily asked "J-just who are you?"

He looked at the completely astonished boy and said "Uzumaki Naruto, Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, pleased to meet you." The already astounded boy almost went into shock. 'Not only a Jinchuuriki, but the container of Kyuubi, the strongest of the nine, no wonder he is so strong.' He thought.

He knelt by the body and said "Now we begin the resurrection." He began a low chant in a language she did not know. It was twisting and writhing, he couldn't explain it. About two hours later he was still chanting. He gathered up the courage and asked "Is this really necessary?" He stopped his chant and looked at the boybefore standing up and saying "No, not really."

He was surprised by this and couldn't come up with a response. He smirked and said "Okay, enough joking around, time for the real thing."

He took a deep breath and reached down and touched her shadow, his hand sliding into it as though it were water. He thought the process to himself as he worked. 'The only thing you need for a human is a body, and soul. The body is already supplied in this case; all we need now is her soul. What most people don't know is that the shadow and the soul are connected. This is why a zombie would die if the original owner of its shadow died before I put my seal on it. The process of zombification is simply putting a powerful shadow and therefore a powerful soul into a powerful body, creating an even greater warrior than the two would be on their own given a lower quality counterpart. Resurrection though is different from zombification, since I need a specific shadow to go with the now functional body. When a person dies, their soul, their memories and feelings, separate from the shadow and move on. The soul still leaves traces on the shadow though that gradually vanish as time goes on. A resurrection of a person only a day or two old is easy, after a week has gone by though the soul is irretrievable. The body has to be functional too; otherwise the person would just die again. She is only a day or two dead, so it shouldn't be too hard… THERE!'

The moment he found the remnants, he quickly followed the trail to the soul, wherever it was. He slowly, slowly pulled it out of the shadow's darkness, a small rainbow-colored orb. "There's a good girl." He muttered to himself and he slowly pressed the orb into the girl's chest and waited. A few moments later her eyes flew open and she took in a ragged breath like a person who was borderline drowning. She looked around wildly, shocked and confused.

Han was overjoyed he yelled out ""Haruka-Chan!" and rushed forward, but stopped when Naruto knocked out the newly revived Haruka with a chop to the neck. Han was surprised and instantly went on guard.

He looked up at her and said "Relax, I didn't hurt her. Her soul still needs to acclimatize to being alive again, so she needs to sleep for at least a day. If she gets too excited before then it could shatter the feeble link between body and soul and kill her again. Anyway, I did as I promised; I resurrected your friend, now for you to hold up your end of the bargain." But what he didn't tell him when he brought her back he made hakura completely loyal to him so in return han was.

He was rather nervous at the thought of what the strange boy would ask him to do but was surprised at what he asked. He gave her a picture of a very strange looking man and said "I need you to find him. Locate Dr. James Hogback."


	5. Making new friends

Hello everyone DTHU is back with the next edition of the hopefully intriguing new naruto hope you enjoy.

I do not own naruto or anything else

XXXXXXXXX

Summary of the last chapter

XXXXXXXXX

Naruto infiltrated Tsuchi no Kuni in search of Dr. Hogback and Absalom. He had no luck finding them, but learned that Iwagakure had its own Jinchuuriki who was a master of Genjutsu and had abilities to scout out an entire country. Enlisting the meek Jinchuuriki Kikukawa Han by resurrecting his only friend (And secret crush) the Jounin Suzushiro Haruka, he has obtained two powerful followers as well as a means to locate the elusive Doctor and now the chapter begins.

XXXXXXXXX

Genjutsu hidden cave

XXXXXXXXX

Naruto quickly handed han a picture of Hogback that he gotten from the kyuubi. It was just a small piece of cardboard with a genjustu on it.

Han grabbed the cardboard and looked at doctor hogback. The man was of decent height and broad. His face was rather memorable. He had long pointed ears, with long vampire like fangs and he also had a very long and pointed nose. His lips were a deep purple for some reason and he wore completely black, circular glasses like the Aburame Clan were prone to do that completely covered his eyes. His hair was also at his shoulder length, it was also pitch black in color, and he also a spiraling tattoo on his left shoulder. His forehead was very large due to balding at some point in his life. He wore a black fur thing on his back with a fishnet shirt and normal black pants. He also wore long rubber gloves that went to his forearms, and wore boots that went all the way to his shins. He easily looked like a person you never wanted to be with let alone find. Han looked at the picture again and told him he wouldn't be very hard to find him. Naruto then gave him a list of where he could be. Han grabbed the list and got to work.

Naruto eyes widened in surprise as he watched Han's tracking power come forth. Han closed his eyes and began muttering things under his breathe and soon enough a hexagonal mirror appeared in front of him from nothing. As he watched he saw large green tentacles appear out of the earth. There were probably two dozen of these plant tentacles and each one of them released a few dozen strange pod like seeds. Before very long there were thousands of these pods like things in the cave. He examined on of the seeds and to his great surprise saw that the plant had a mechanical eye. Even though the plant was biological, it also had a strangely mechanical eye; it was like a camera lense in the middle of the seed. Naruto then looked towards han and saw he was looking at a few dozen of these same identical mirrors. They rapidly moved around han as he moved the mirrors in front of him, the sides easily fitting together to make a single gigantic faceted mirror. Each one of the facets had a different image on it and they rapidly changed images. Han then told naruto that every seed had a built in genjustu in it to make it invisible to everyone else. He watched the multi-faceted mirror in complete shock as each image changed at incredible speeds, moving where han wanted them to go. Watching them go through images so fast made him feel a bit sick. Han who had obviously a lot of practice at this since he wasn't even affected in any way.

Naruto was simply amazed he never knew a technique like this existed imagine the possibilities they were endless. Entire countries viewed in seconds, nothing could escape form hans sight. If it was within his range of course but his range was incredibly wide. Before long the mirrors showed every important event happening in Iwa from a riot to the their Daimyo waking up in a bed with a women that wasn't his wife. It was incredible he could barely believe that he was watching it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed it. Inside of his mind, Kyuubi was just as amazed. She had no idea that the gobi was strong or smart to invent a incredible technique like this.

It took one hour but they found Doctor Hogback the greatest doctor in his time and even still now tied for first with Tsunade herself. He was currently drinking tea on a mountain ledge apparently enjoying the sunrise until one looked at the town below. The town below was having a mass burial, ten people dead in a building collapsing. He wrote something on his piece of paper. Afterwards he stood up and walked right through the mountain side and disappeared. Naruto then asked where that town was han said it was called Bubuzuke, in the Fujino Mountains. He cringed inwardly that was ten miles away from one of the towns he picked. He thought more about how he was just able to walk through a mountain like that. It must have been Absalom he had the ability to make anything invisible as long as he touched it. Hiding a caves entrance like that must have been child's play for him. He then looked back at han and told him they would wait a day so hakura could get back to normal. Han then marked the location on the map and then dismissing all his plants. Naruto then set up three tents for all of them then went to sleep. I mean after all raiding a well-defended building, heart transplant surgery, and bringing back the dead really takes it out of a guy. Han just sat there for a bit wondering if any of it was real but got up and went to sleep.

XXXXXXXXX

Nine hours later

XXXXXXXXX

Exactly nine hours later naruto woke up. It was currently 10 am it seemed. He then sealed up his tent and went over to wake up han. After a minute or so of doing it he got annoyed and just used a low powered Suiton: Mizurappa. He woke up instantly spitting up water and glaring at naruto as he handed him a towel.

Han dried off the best he could while naruto sealed up his tent. Once han was done drying off he looked at naruto and studied him. He was young at most 8 or 9. He wore a black rubber shirt, his pants were black anbu pants, he wore black ninja sandals, he also wore a trench coat but didn't put his arms in it he wore it like a cloak. He had his hands and arms free inside of it. He also had the top two buttons done and the collar was flipped up, covering his face from the sides and back. He then wore black leather gloves that went to his elbows. Lastly he wore a strange hat with a very unique design. It was cylindrical that went up three inches from the brim, it was also pitch black. Its brim was wide and slightly glossed so that the reflection from any light would make it hard to look him in the face. The entire thing was apparently designed to be difficult to recognize his features. Han also noticed something else he didn't have a shadow it just wasn't there.

His size and age forced han to ask a question "How did you get all of these people that were in the freezer. Where did you find them and how did you get them onto those hooks?" He turned to look at her and said "As for where I got them, well I have been collecting them as I traveled through Tsuchi no Kuni. Two or three of the bodies were from each town and anyone that I happen to come across. I studied them for blood type, any possible diseases, Kekkei Genkai or anything else that made them special. As for how I got them from place to place, well…." Without any obvious movement from him, a large black claw emerged from the darkness of the deeper areas of the cave. "Well, I have a lot of hands. Now come on, we have to go get your friend." He walked on toward the portable laboratory, Han hurrying to follow him. He may be small, but that little fucker was quick!

He walked up to door and opened it "wait" he yelled "but I thought you said if you open it to early she could die!"

He looked back at han "yes but the time differs on the body soul to acclimatize varies from person to person. Also she wasn't dead for very long so the time for it to acclimatize shouldn't be to long. Im going back to check if she wake and if shes not then get an accurate time to see when she will make up." He then turned and plunged his hand in hakuras shadow before han could say or do anything.

He felt though the darkness of her shadow. "Well her soul is definitely here, that's a pretty good sign. Everything is also lined up so that's good as well. Wait, heres a spot where the shadow and body haven't connected to the soul. Let's see now, there are one, two, three, four, yeah four spots not linked up yet. Yeah it's definitely not safe, but the spots are minor so it shouldn't be too long before shes awake and running around.'

He pulled his hand out of her shadow. "Is it safe to wake her up yet" han asked with worry showing on his face.

Naruto looked at han and said "not yet probably an hour or two at most before she finally awakes up. Naruto walked around before walked outside. He then looked at han and said "hey its going to take a while want to play chess." He took out a portable chess game as he asked the question. When he looked up and saw her eyes eyes light up he knew he did something wrong. 'Oh god, what demon have I awakened now

XXXXXXXXX

Two hours and thirty two chess games later

XXXXXXXXX

Naruto buried his face in hands. This is absolutely embarrassing hes lost 32 games in the row. How he supposed to know that Han was a chess fanatic. Even though Han didn't look like it he was quite a nerd in a lot of ways.

He looked up at han who kept saying "come on just one more game it can't hurt". He stood up and walked to the cave mouth.

"Hey where are you going?" han asked. "im going to get your friend some clothes from the closest town which is five miles away. Unless you enjoy her with no clothes." He then walked out of the genjutsu and sank into a shadow. 'He's right' he thought. 'The only thing Haruka-chan has to clothe her is her Hitai-ate since Iwa law dictates that dead ninja be buried with them. I wonder how long he'll be…?'

His question was soon answered when he showed up barely ten minutes later with the clothing in hand. When he asked him how he was able to get to a town five miles away, bought the stuff, and got back so quickly he just replied "Being able to instantaneously go wherever I have been before is awesome. I appeared a 10 feet from the shop, picked up what I wanted, and sank into the shadows right in front of the shopkeeper as I got close to the register, his face was absolutely priceless. He is probably calling the local police as we speak but it will be cold day in Hell before they find this place."

Han stared at naruto then said "aren't you worried they'll put up more posters or stuff." He asked curiously and a bit worried.

Naruto looked at han and said well I used a genjustu to changed my features and besides there already looking for us anyway. Besides you have more to worry about. We raided a morgue for the corpse of a powerful jounin filled with secrets. Also you will be listed as an B rank or A rank missing nin maybe S because of you're a Jinchuuriki. When the reports of hakura appearing she will get the same treatment. I won't be listed because of my size and age they'll probably believe it to be a genjustu and say something like Travels with an unknown shinobi of unknown power' or something like that. So your already a criminal so this won't hurt anymore then what you will already get if you get captured a quick death prenatally and that will be it".

Han looked up at naruto and nodded. After a moment he said " heh whatever the basterds didn't deserve me or hakura. Naruto looked at him for a second and said "Now, let's get Haruka these clothes so that she is decent when she travels with us, and then we shall get the Hell out of here. I don't want to stay in this country any longer than necessary." He then suddenly stopped and pulled at a kunai and threw it in front of han. He then said " you're a missing ninja now you will probably want to keep that standard Han pulled off the headband and slashed it quickly he then wrapped it around his waist like a belt.

Naruto came out a minute later and then handed her a bundle wrapped in paper. "Also I got you some new clothes since yours are in tatters. I thought that it would probably be the best if YOU woke up your friend and explained things to her. She will probably want to see a familiar face when she wakes up at least I think she does. I have examined her and it is safe to wake her. Don't worry take your time theres only all of Iwa coming after us." After that he went and sat against the wall. Han after a moment's thought, entered the laboratory.

About ten minutes later Han appeared with hakura as they walked out of the lab. Hakura was wearing a normal shinobi pants with the ankle taped off, she also wore the standard kunoichi sandals, and a white Chinese style shirt. She had her noticeably slashed Iwa Hitai-ate around her waist like a belt. There was a pouch full of ninja equipment at her waistline. Han didn't have his rust colored armor on right now so he was just wearing normal shinobi pants,with black combact boots, and a plain black shirt. She was guiding her friend by the hand and he heard Haruka saying "I only wish that we could get back at that find that killed me." "Fiend" han then corrected her friend.

Naruto sealed up the lab and the equipment and said "You wish for revenge, and Haruno women wish they were born with big, beautiful tits instead of the equivalent of molehills. Not everyone gets what they want but at least your dream will come true in time, theirs won't. Anyway, han explained the situation to you I take it?

Haruka nodded, carefully eying the person that supposedly brought her back from the dead and he just said "Good, hurry were leaving. The Fujino Mountains are about sixty miles away and the cave we are looking for is rather deep in them so we must hurry of we want to get their soon." He started walking toward the cave mouth, the two kunoichi hurrying to catch up. Before he left, he turned around and asked Haruka "Oh, by the way, I wanted to know if you wanted to keep this thing" He held up the jar with Haruka's pierced heart. When he saw Haruka turn green and asked her again "Come on, it will make a nice souvenir to keep ." She then slapped the jar with her old heart out of his hand and it landed with a loud 'CRACK' on the ground. Naruto looked at the jar then looked at her and said "Jeez, no one has a sense of humor anymore." Before walking on, han was trying to calm down his now fuming friend.

XXXXXXXXX

Two weeks and 80 miles later

XXXXXXXXX

Naruto and the dysfunctional group were a mile away from their destination in a tent covered in a genjustu. The place was a rather quaint little mining village with a good legitimate governor. Not bit of corruption in the guy at all. That's probably why he heard some people were hired to kill him so that probably didn't help. They also had a mass grave robbing of those people that died in the building collapsing. It showed that they weren't too far from hogback. Han was currently using his powers on a much smaller scale to locate the ledge they saw two weeks ago.

Getting to their destination so far had been very difficult with all of the iwa shinobi running around everywhere looking for them. They mostly managed to stay hide from the iwa shinobi but one team stumbled onto their camp as han was setting up the genjustu on the tents. Each of the shinobi were mid to low level jonin. When they saw who they were immediately unleashed a barrage of shuriken. Naruto quickly using his power of darkness formed a shield against their attack. Naruto then formed 8 claws out of the shinobi shadows. Four of the shadow quickly grabbed the hips of their captives while the other 4 claws broke either of the shinobis knees. Once they fell to the ground naruto slit each of their throats. After doing this deed he unsealed his freezer then put them on the meets hooks then resealed it. The only evidence the hunternins ever were there was from the large amount of blood on the ground, hans and hakuras new equipment, and narutos new iwa bingo book.

After going through it for a minute he found an interesting section. He showed Han a picture of himself in the bingobook with all of his known skills. Naruto then pointed to a small note under the picture "with a ninja of unknown power and unknown age, presumably Jounin, that also hides his appearance via Genjutsu so he tricks his enimies into thinking hes a child.' Naruto then smirked and looked up at han and said" Hah told you so." He then told her the last part about her info her bounty which was fat thirty thousand Ryo indeed a great deal of money for anyone.

Han looked up from his tracking and told naruto he found them. They then sealed up the camp in seconds and started running to their destination. Naruto couldn't help but feel anticipation as his goals were coming close to finally happening.

The ledge where they first found hogback wasn't too wide or to narrow. A single person standing here was easy but with three other people made it a bit harder. Naruto stood there for a moment before pushing against the "solid Rockwall" before his hand went through it. He then entered with Han and Hakura quickly following.

Naruto quickly walked into the illuminated cave. There wasn't much to say about the place in all honesty. Naruto quickly looked around for any sign of Hogback. If there were any torches on the wall he would've thought the place was uninhabited. He walked into a ten foot long torch-lit corridor before he broke a tripwire. He looked at the broken string with a bit of apprehension. No traps went off; no alarms went off, at least no obvious ones. He decided that it must be a silent alarm, a warning system that didn't let the enemy know they were detected. He continued in, keeping watch for any traps.

Naruto walked in to sparsely furnished living room, he finally found one of the two he was looking for. A tall man with the face of a beast, clad in a black coat and wearing an odd hat stepped around the corner and without any preempt lifted his hand, palm facing Naruto and growled "Dead Man's Hand!" A blast of some kind of energy rocketed toward the young shadow user which was then quickly blocked by said shadows. Not wanting to bother any longer with the beast man known as Absalom, but didn't want to seriously hurt the beast man, he then manipulated the beast man's own shadow. A pair of hands emerged suddenly from Absalom's shadow, and then the hands grabbed the beast man's ankles and pulled his legs out from under him. A few seconds later when he was done kissing the stone floor, he quickly pointed his hand at naruto about to launch another "Dead Man's Hand", this time the hands stopped Absalom from attacking. They lifted him up and slammed him back into the ground, stunning the amalgam of man and animal. He told the two ninja that were following him to watch the knocked out creature as he continued on.

Naruto walked into the room where Absalom was first hiding in and found 3 rooms. A bit of exploration later and he discovered that two of them were the bedrooms of Absalom and Hogback, while the third was Hogback's laboratory, where he found the skilled, yet elusive doctor.

He found Doctor Hogback dissecting a human corpse. There was an open coffin leaning against the wall alongside nine others, three of which were also opened. Hogback didn't really react to Naruto's intrusion like he thought he would. He just looked up, put down his instruments, and said "so who are you and how did you find this place?"

Naruto stayed quite for a minute due to his surprise form Hogbacks reaction. He was expecting him to angry and or frightened not detached and calm. After a moment Hogback reached under the table and pulled out a gun from Hogbacks time. The gun had been stuck to a magnetic strip under the table so he could quickly get it without anyone knowing it was there before he grabbed it. He then quickly pointed the said gun at Naruto, who recognized the weapon thanks to Kyuubi's memories, cocked it, and asked Naruto the same question again, in other words so who are you and how did you find this place?"

Naruto smiled and said "Well, my name is Uzumaki Naruto. I found this place because I saw you on the ledge outside and I came here to give you a very interesting offer." Hogback adjusted the gun to point right at Naruto's head and said "Oh, and what's that? If I don't like your answer, I will have to put a hole between your eyes you understand." Naruto nodded and just said "In exchange for the assistance of you and Absalom, I will return to you the power and authority you had as members of Gecko Moria's Three Enigmas."

Hogback dropped his gun in shock of the fact that this boy knew of Gecko Moria and that he was saying he could get all the power he had back. He wondered how he even knew of gecko moria it fell centuries ago during the grand line the only people that knew about it was himself and Absalom.

Hogback reaffirmed his hold on the gun in his hand while it was still pointed at naruto. Naruto could have easily taken out the doctor by now, but he wanted the man to come along willingly. Hogback said, with clear distrust in his voice "Really? Tell me, how does a boy know about things that are in no living record? Gecko Moria was defeated centuries ago, and Thriller Bark with him. The only living people who should know about that place are Absalom and I. How did you find out, and even more importantly, how do you plan to give us back what we lost when Thriller Bark fell?"

Naruto smiled and said "having access to a demons memories is a very helpful tool I must say. As for how I can give you what you had back, well…" He had large claws come out of the shadows around the room, shocking the doctor. "I have the abilities that you required from Gecko Moria to create zombies, those abilities and more. I have already made around fifty zombies using the methods you created. I have even improved upon them."

Recovering from his mild shock, Hogback asked, with a bit of suppressed hope in his voice "Oh? Is that right? Well, how have you improved upon my designs then, Naruto-san?"

Naruto smiled openly then and said "I have made the zombies fireproof so that's one part. The second is that I have developed a way so that it is safe to kill the shadow's original owner and not kill the zombie with him."

Hogback dropped his gun a loud noise rang out in the room as it hit the floor."I-impossible" He muttered. Naruto smiled and said "not so hogback like what I was just telling you I can give you back what you had and even more then you ever imagined. However, though I can make zombies easily enough, I need a medical expert to assist me. Not only are you a medical expert but you have a much more experience with making zombies so your zombies that you would make would be much more superior to my own. That is the reason why I didn't try to harm you. If I couldn't have found you useful I would have killed the both of you by now to prevent word of the zombies' weakness from spreading once they become known. Now then, I trust you will agree to my deal? It is simple enough; serve me as you served Gecko Moria. Create zombies for me to animate, it is simple enough."

Hogback nodded, he knew that this was the opportunity of a dozen lifetimes he was being offered. The time he spent at Thriller Bark was the most successful time of his life. Once the Mugiwara crew defeated Moria, that all went down the drain, but now, now he had a chance to get it all back.

Naruto just said "Come on, we need to go wake up Absalom." before he walked through the door. Hogback followed him quickly, wondering and hoping this wasn't a dream.

After they had woken up Absalom and he agreed to the same deal that Hogback had, the five of them sat down in the living room. Naruto and Hogback sitting in the two chairs while Absalom and the two girls leaned against the wall. Naruto started the discussion. "Okay, first thing, we have to get out of Tsuchi no Kuni and fast."

Absalom looked at him and said "Why is that Naruto-sama?"

Naruto looked at Hogback and said" because we have most of iwa chasing after us because one of the two ninja I took with me from Iwa was a jinchuuriki that they have long abused. Didn't you notice that they were wearing slashed Hitai-ates?" Without waiting for any response to be said he continued "Once we leave this country were going to get you" He indicated Hogback and Absalom "To a safe place. Hogback will need to begin his work into creating more powerful soldier class zombies, though you can come with us if you wish Absalom." He gave the man a moment to think and he responded "Why not, I would like to see how the world has changed recently; I will need to see any possible terrain we may one day be fighting on."

Naruto nodded, pleased at how well everything was currently going. Absalom was a powerful fighter, and more importantly, an excellent commander. Why else would Moria give him the job of commanding his most powerful zombies?

Naruto continued on "Good this will also help when we get Perona. It will probably be nice to see old friends."

"PERONA!?" the both of them yelled at the same time. Hogback continued on "Perona is alive!? But how?" Naruto looked at the doctor and said "Her powers. You know that she could separate her spirit from her body right?" Hogback nodded and he continued "Well, a year or so after she was defeated by Bartholomew Kuma, she was faced with a powerful foe that had wounded her fatally. In a last ditch effort to survive she left her body, which died shortly after and ever since then she has been a ghost trapped on earth, though she is just as powerful as you remember."

Hogback and Absalom were shocked into silence. 'Perona was actually around all this time?' they thought. They had both believed that she had died at Thriller Bark.

"Finding Perona and recruiting her will be our main focus for now until we find her. It will very difficult because she no longer has a body but with you two vouching for me I believe we can recruit her all the same.

"What are you planning to offer her, Naruto-sama?"

Naruto just smiled and said "Oh, you'll see."


End file.
